2018 British Open: What Tiger Woods said after his 66 Saturday

2018 British Open: What Tiger Woods said after his 66 Saturday

Tiger Woods evoked plenty of memories of Tiger Woods Saturday, as he charged up the leaderboard and – at one point – held a share of the lead at the British Open.

He finished with a 5-under 66 and was two shots off The 147th Open Championship lead at 5-under overall.

Woods pulled even for the lead at 6-under after No. 15, before a bogey on 16 knocked him out of the lead spot. It marked the first time in 2,226 days (since Round 3 of the 2015 U.S. Open) that Woods held a share of the lead this late in a major.

It has been 60 rounds since Tiger last shot 66 in a major, that being the second round of the Masters in 2011.

Here is some of what he said Saturday, speaking to Steve Sands of Golf Channel/NBC.

On his strategy Saturday vs. Rounds 1 & 2:

“Thursday, the golf course was very, very quick. We were laughing. I was telling Joey not to go down the hills too quickly, you may slip and fall. Friday, it was raining. So I played the golf course kind of the same way. Tried to stay out of the rough (because) balls were running 70, 80, 90 yards. Yesterday, the rough was pretty tough to play on. It was grabbing shaft a lot. Today was dry . . . so I figured I’d probably have to go get it. It’s probably going to get to about 10 under and hopefully I’d be able to post five or six (under par) and I was able to get five.”

On his par save at No. 1:

“I hit a terrible 9-iron in there. It was a nice putt to make.”

On his long putt on No. 9:

“I wouldn’t have made this putt if I hadn’t seen Shaun’s (Norris) putt first. His putt snapped at the end and I wasn’t expecting that. So I threw it out there a little further. And I also hit it too hard.”

On how it felt to grab a share of the lead on No. 15:

“I didn’t know.”

On barely clearing the burn at 18:

“I didn’t know if I carried it or not. I didn’t know if it was in the hazard or in the rough. It was a terrible 2-iron. I was just trying to hit a hop-bomb down there.”

On the importance of the par save on No. 18:

“It was huge. I didn’t want to drop two shots coming in. On top of that, I played so well, I just didn’t want to bogey there … I had to post a number to be within reach.”